On Oct. 29, the waters of the Suisun Bay breached the levee along the northern shoreline of Martinez and flowed into the Pacheco Marsh. The breach was the culmination of a process that took 18 years, $24 million in funds, and dirt. Lots of dirt. “Dirt is cheap,” said Paul Detjens, the project manager of the Pacheco Marsh restoration project, “but moving the dirt from one place to another is expensive.”
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has blocked a controversial $2 billion hydroelectric plant near the Lake Elsinore shoreline after the developer failed to provide requested environmental studies and a construction plan, among other things.
Vista-based Nevada Hydro Co. has proposed building a 200-foot-high dam above the lake and a 500-megawatt, underground power plant with turbines on 845 acres of U.S. Forest Service. Water would be pumped from the lake to a man-made reservoir when demand for electricity is low, with water flowing back to the lake when demand is high. The project has been named the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage Project, or LEAPS.
Following a sizable atmospheric river dumping rain and snow in the San Joaquin Valley and central Sierra Nevada mountain range and another on the way for Christmas, it appears that Valley communities won’t be earning any immediate extra water supplies.
Earlier this month, California’s Department of Water Resources announced that, for the first time ever, it would start the 2022 water year with a zero water allocation for water users relying on the California aqueduct and other state canal systems.
If You’re Headed Up to Tahoe This Week and Dreaming of a White Christmas, Meteorologists Say You’ll Get Your Wish. But It Might Not Be the Smoothest Trip Through the Sierra Nevada.
The Mountains Are Expected to Get Blanketed With Snow From a Series of Storms That Will Bring Rain to the Bay Area, With Donner Pass Seeing Possibly a Total of 80 to 100 Inches of Snow Tuesday Through Saturday, According to the National Weather Service Office in Sacramento.
State water officials have asked local groundwater agencies to better prevent land subsidence. Simultaneously, the state is also working to fix the damage caused by sinking land.
Subsidence is caused by the over-pumping of groundwater. It occurs in many parts of California but is especially pronounced in the San Joaquin Valley during drought years.
In a stunning turnaround, Marin County water supplies that were once at risk of going dry next year have refilled to above-average levels following a series of unusually early downpours.
Marin water officials are reevaluating some drought restrictions and penalties that were adopted earlier this year, especially with more rain in the forecast this week.
After two years of drought, Gov. Gavin Newsom remains reluctant to put limits on statewide water use. His administration, however, is looking to take a first step.
Next month, the State Water Resources Control Board is expected to adopt temporary prohibitions on outdoor water practices, including hosing down driveways, filling up decorative fountains and watering lawns within 48 hours of rain.
A one-two punch of storm systems is expected to drape the Bay Area in rainy weather for much of the upcoming week while potentially making holiday travel in the Sierra Nevada mountains “very challenging to impossible,” meteorologists say.
A proposed ballot measure that would dedicate $100 billion to bolster California’s water supply is drawing a sharp rebuke, not only for the amount of spending but also for the dramatic sidesteps it would allow in the environmental review process.
For example, the proposal would make the controversial plan for a Huntington Beach desalination plant eligible for a huge taxpayer subsidy — even though the private, for-profit Poseidon Water company currently intends to pay for the $1.4 billion in construction costs.
